I leaned my forehead against his bare chest. I could hear the strong beat of his heart. He must have already started to undress when he saw me hesitate. I knew what he said was true and it must be hard to realize someone you trusted so deeply had lied to you. But if he had known of the cure ten years ago, we wouldn’t be here about to begin a new life together. “I can’t be angry with him,” I murmured, looking up into his intense blue eyes that were almost black in the darkness. “I know he hurt you, and what he tried to do to Isaiah was horrible. But if you knew of the cure back then, we would never have met and I would be trapped in a life I hated.” Just the thought of never knowing him made my eyes water, a single tear escaped and slid down my cheek.
Nate brushed it with his thumb and kissed my forehead gently. “Then I can’t be angry at him either. I should be thanking him.”
I gazed into his eyes and grinned, feeling so much love for him, my heart swelled with it.
“Let’s do this,” I said, pulling away from him and yanking the tank top from my body.
He followed suit and then we began our transformation. I didn’t hide this time. It was the last change and I felt so close to him, I didn’t want any secrets between us.
When we were fully in our wolf forms, we emerged from the trees and began our final run with our friends.
Our limbs thundered over the terrain, as we ran through the trails. We were following the ATV; the roaring motor was a driving pulse pulling us towards it. Since Isaiah was more familiar with the area, he was leading us up the trail rising higher and higher. I was behind the rest of our group, enjoying the journey, concentrating on the power in my legs as we ascended the mountain. The brisk wind whipped through my fur as I jumped over a fallen tree branch and veered around a big white oak stump. A few miles into our trek we finally stopped.
Isaiah turned off his machine and stood on the edge of a cliff. We moved toward him, all of us taking positions on either side as we looked down. He had led us to one of the highest peaks of the mountain and the view was awesome. My breath caught in my throat from the sheer beauty of it. We had seen it during the day and the brightness the sun created over the vibrant colors was beautiful. But at night, the darkness created mysterious shadows along the forest and the moon gleamed off the rocks of the mountain, turning it almost glowing white. The bright stars shimmered in the contrasting dark endless sky. Since we were so high up, I felt like I could reach a forepaw up and touch one.
“What do you think?” Isaiah asked us, interrupting my thoughts. He was dressed in a plain black t-shirt and faded jeans. His hair blew in the wind and the leathery skin on his face appeared almost smooth in the lowlight. “Should we howl from the mountaintop? It is Megan and Nate’s last full moon.”
I felt my lips turn up into a wolfy smile. It was a fantastic idea. When would we ever be this high up again and never would the two of us be wolves again. Before I could glance at my friends to see their reaction to the suggestion, Nate tipped his head up and let out a chilling howl. I did the same, a chorus of wailing erupted into the infinite night sky. Sadie and Adrian joined in on the song. I could hear animals in the bushes nearby scurry away, frightened by our cries. We must have looked a little odd, four wolves and an old man standing on top of a cliff, howling at the moon. It was the perfect way to end our time as werewolves.
“Do you have any two’s?” I asked Sadie. We were playing cards the next day. It was my idea. I had been jittery and anxious, pacing back and forth so much I was wearing out a path in Isaiah’s rug. I needed a distraction and all I could think to take my mind off the upcoming event was playing cards, and Go Fish was all Sadie knew how to play. Marisa had taught her years ago and for some reason, that was what they still played. Nate and Adrian were outside talking to Isaiah and had obviously wanted privacy from our heightened hearing. I knew I should be wondering what they were discussing, but I was too nervous to care. If the cure worked, I was about to be human. Would I feel the same toward my husband or would the mate bond disappear with the werewolf gene. Just the thought created mutant butterflies doing the mambo in my stomach.
As Sadie plopped the last of her cards onto the table’s surface, the front door opened. The three men wandered up to the kitchen where we were playing and gazed at me expectantly. “Is it time?” I asked, swallowing a lump the size of Mount Everest that had been building in my throat since I woke up that morning.
Nate nodded. “Do you still want to?” he asked me hesitantly.
I nodded; happy that he couldn’t see my hands shake; they were in my lap, under the table. “Yes.” My voice was thankfully much stronger than I felt.
He smiled and held out his hand, leading me back to the bedroom I had woken up in a week ago. There were now two single beds in it, lying parallel to each other, a small table and lamp sat between them.
“Lay down please,” Isaiah instructed us.
We did as we were told and I stared up at the ceiling. It was lined with pipes, cables and vents. Isaiah stood next to Nate, at his insistence. He wanted to be the first to take the cure, making sure it was safe. My heart ached at the thought. He loved me so much he would risk his own life to save mine. I held my breath as Isaiah pushed the needle into Nate`s upper arm. When he finished, he stepped back, assessing Nate’s reaction. “How does it feel?” he asked.
“Fine. I don’t feel any different.”
“It should take an hour or two to spread through your body. And when it does, you should start to feel hot and feverish. I’d like you to stay in bed though just in case it`s different for you and it starts sooner.” When Nate nodded, Isaiah looked over at me.
“Maybe she should wait for me to finish the process before we give her the dose,” Nate suggested, a worry line forming between his eyes.
“No,” I said forcefully. I was not going to wait. I wanted to turn human at the same time as him. We were in this together, whether he liked it or not.
Nate stared at me, as if he was thinking about arguing. I narrowed my eyes at him, hoping he could see how serious I was. This was not the time to make decisions for me and I would not stand for it.
Finally his face softened. “Fine. You’re right; we are in this together.”
I reached my hand across the empty space between our beds. “You’re damn right we are.”
When he smiled at me, sliding his hand around mine, Isaiah moved toward me, the second needle in his hand.
“You ready?” Isaiah asked. When I nodded, he held up the needle.
“Wait!” Sadie called out, freezing Isaiah in place. She rushed forward from her spot in the corner next to Adrian and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. “Good luck. Thank you for making me your friend and for being the best mate Nate could have asked for.”
“Sadie, she’s not dying,” Adrian chastised. “Is she?” he asked Isaiah nervously. Adrian had come to be one of my best friends and it was comforting to see that he felt the same way.
Isaiah grinned. “No, she’ll be fine. There is nothing harmful in the mix.”
Ignoring Adrian’s words, Sadie hugged me again, her dark strands falling into my face. Her hair smelled of ginger. I returned the hug, feeling warm and tingly for my new friend. I was so glad we had found her. I was thankful she and Adrian we here to experience this with us. A pang of sadness pierced through my heart when I thought of Lauren. She had been the one with us through everything. She was the one who encouraged Nate to approach me, and she had told me to be patient with him when he kept pushing me away at the beginning. She was there for the good, the bad and everything in between. She should have been with us on the day we returned human. But I knew I couldn’t focus on that. I would see her again, and there would be other important experiences we could share with her. This was not the end of our friendship; I had to keep reminding myself of that.
Lost in my thoughts, I was surprised when Sadie pulled away from me and moved to Nate to give him a hug.
Adrian took her place giving me a big bear hug. “
Be safe,” he whispered in my ear. “I don’t want to lose my best friend.”
I grinned up at him. “Everything will be fine. Next full moon, you can take me for a ride.” I winked at him. “I’ve never ridden on a wolf before. You can be like a pet.”
“Funny.” He smirked at me and then smiled.
He shook Nate’s hand and then he and his mate moved to the back of the room to watch, taking their previous spot on two chairs.
This time Isaiah didn’t ask if I was ready, he just pressed the plunger into my upper arm and waited for the funky looking liquid to seep into my body.
When he finished, he placed the empty needles on a tray and grinned. “You’re the first werewolves I’ve cured. I’m excited to have others like me, between werewolf and human.”
My veins burned as the liquid traveled down my arm, to my hands, spreading the opposite way, to my shoulders and then to my other arm. The feeling wasn’t painful, just slightly irritating. It was as if I could feel the cure slowly taking over my body. When I glanced at Nate, his face was awash with agitation and I knew he was feeling the same.
A few hours later my body started to heat up. Soon after, my stomach started to churn and then came the sweats. It wasn’t long after that, I passed out, the burning sensation still overpowering everything else. The last words I heard was Nate’s soft, “I love you.”
My body ached in places I didn’t know could feel pain. I was weak and thirsty as hell. It felt like fur had grown on my tongue and since I had just taken an unknown drug, I hoped it wasn`t literal and just meant that it was dry. When my eyelids fluttered open, I turned my head. Nate was in the bed next to me, lying flat on his back, his hair sticking up against the white pillow beneath him, his cheeks flushed. The image reminded me of when I woke a month and a half earlier, legally tied to him as his wife. Just like that moment, this one held so much meaning for us. We were together, as we always would be.
He turned his head and gazed at me expectantly, reaching out to hold my hand again. “How do you feel?” he asked, his voice edged with concern.
That was a hard question. If he meant physically, I was fine; despite the fact that I would kill for a drink. And if he meant mentally, I was even better. I had been worried that when I woke up I wouldn’t love Nate as I had when I was a werewolf. But all the feelings that were in me before I had fallen asleep were still there. If it was possible, I felt even more in love. How could I not? We had just gone through a big change together and now that we were no longer werewolves, we could have the lives we were always meant to have… together.
When I gazed into his eyes, I could see the love I felt for him staring back at me. All the fear of those feelings leaving with the werewolf gene, washed away. We were together and could finally live the normal life he had always wanted. When I thought over everything, there was only one answer that would sum up all that I was feeling. “Human,” I finally whispered.
Epilogue
“She looks like me,” my mom cooed to the bundle in her arms, her platinum hair hanging over the soft pink blanket.
“Oh, no Heather, she looks like our lovely daughter.” My father grinned and winked at me. Since Emily was born yesterday, he was a different person. He actually smiled and I could see joy in his eyes.
We had named our daughter after Nate’s mother, Emmaline. I wanted to use her full name, but Nate wanted to modernize it. Now that he knew that our time on this earth was limited, he wanted to live life to its fullest and stop dwelling on the past.
“He’s right. She looks just like you,” Nate agreed, leaning down to kiss me, his familiar scent wrapping around me like our baby’s warm blanket. She might have had my strawberry colored hair, but when you looked at her vivid blue eyes, you could tell she was a Riley.
I grinned again, something I had been doing a lot of since she was born. Of course, there wasn’t much of that when I was in labor. The pain was something I had not been prepared for. It brought back the memory of changing into a werewolf. I hadn`t felt anything like that in years…until now. But after twenty three hours, the doctor finally pulled her out and placed her in my arms. She winked and blinked at the bright light above us and my heart was once again lost. She was a part of me and Nate, the man that had meant everything to me. I had never been happier in my entire life.
It had been five years since Nate and I had taken the cure and just as I had thought, he had come alive when we awoke human. He was finally able to settle into Creekford and to plan for a future. As werewolves, we weren’t able to have children and when we returned home from North Carolina that was the first thing Nate asked for, a baby of his own. He had treated his extended family like his children ever since his immediate family died so many years ago, but this was different. This was his own child. We decided to wait a few years to enjoy a normal life together before we began planning for her, but now that she was here, I wondered what we were waiting for.
We changed our last name legally to Riley from Green; some people were confused as to why and the only reason we could come up with was that Nate had just found out he was a relative. It was a weak explanation, but if people questioned it, they never said anything.
Nate had moved up in the company publicly. He no longer ran things behind closed doors, as he had in the past. His public position wasn’t as high as his real job, but he was finally able to be true to himself without all the lies.
I was still running Riley House and without all the drama that came with being a werewolf, things were going well. Residents were thriving in the shelter and I was really proud of what we accomplished there. I had even persuaded my parents to volunteer annually for our Fun Days. It was all I could manage, but at least it was something. They were trying to be the parents they should have been as I was growing up. And by the way they looked at my daughter; they were going to be even better grandparents. I couldn’t help but grin at my dad. Emily had him wrapped around her little finger already and it would be interesting to see how this would play out.
Mona and Ben had left an hour before; she had been at the hospital since I woke up this morning. Ben had to drag her out so I could have more visitors.
“Can I have a turn Mrs. Banks?” Sadie asked from her chair next to Adrian.
My mother smiled at my friend. “Of course Sadie and please call me Heather.”
Sadie nodded, as she took my baby into her arms, her long brown hair flowing over her shoulders. She was wearing a flowing purple sundress that protruded at the belly. “She is so precious. I can’t wait to have ours.”
Sadie was four months pregnant. She and Adrian got married three years ago and took the cure a year after that. Adrian had started his own construction company and Sadie was still working at the shelter with me, but now she worked during the days heading up the career program. Marisa was in college taking fashion design and Nathan was at the same school, earning a business degree. They were living together as much as Adrian hated it. But, since she was now an adult, he didn’t have much say in the matter.
“Well honey, we’re going to go. I’m so proud of you.” My mother’s voice wavered as a tear slid down her cheek. I didn’t know she had it in her. Yes, she had changed since I had gotten married, but I wasn’t expecting tears.
My father rolled his eyes as he led her out of the room.
Once they were gone, Nate sat on the edge of the bed next to me; his grin was as wide as mine as we watched our friend hold our daughter.
“If your baby is a boy, maybe they can date,” I said to Adrian. His face went white, a shocking contrast to the black button-down he was wearing. I didn`t think anyone could look paler, until I glanced at Nate; his eyes were as round as saucers.
Sadie and I laughed at them as a knock sounded at the door. I could scent the werewolves before the door opened. Panic clenched in my chest, as I worried for my child. We hadn’t smelled that scent in years, nothing good could come of it.
The fear drained out of me when I turned my head. Lauren and Jo
e framed the doorway. Lauren held a guarded expression, as if she wasn’t sure she was welcome. I had texted her when I went into labor asking if they could come to visit. But since it was a long plane ride from Ireland, I wasn’t sure they would make the trip. She looked beautiful. Her sandy colored hair had grown since I had last seen her, reaching to her lower back. She was wearing a fitted black silk blouse and dark blue skinny jeans. Her face wasn`t as tanned as it usually was in the summer, but since she had been living in Ireland that was understandable. Joe, looked exactly the same, but his hair was shorter than I remembered. The top that was normally long enough to flop over his eyes was cropped close to his head. I liked it; it showed off the sharp planes on his face.
“Come on in, I’m so glad you could come.”
Lauren rushed forward and gave me a hug, but backed away when a little moan of pain escaped my mouth. She made a face. “I’m sorry.” Then she scrunched her nose up, a slight grin appearing on her lips. “You smell like a human.” She winked. “Are you happy?”
I nodded. “Yes. But even more so now that you guys are here.” I glanced at Joe who stood against the wall, his face tense. He and Nate had talked a few times since they moved away, but things were still strained between them. “Joe, stop holding that wall up and give me a hug. I haven’t seen you in years.”
A barely-there smile appeared on his face as he obeyed my command. He squeezed a little harder than my sore body could handle, but I didn’t want to protest, since he seemed anxious already. He stood up and shook the hand that Nate held out. As Nate was about to pull his hand away, Joe pulled him in for a big bear hug. “Congratulations Dad,” he murmured, before drawing away.
“Thanks,” Nate said, beaming at his friend. By the look on both of their faces, everything would be fine between them eventually.
“Oh, I want one,” Lauren squealed, as she approached Sadie who was still holding the baby.
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